What do you do with that soup you’ve had 2 nights this week and want something different with what little’s left? Make a pie! It can be any kind of soup, but chicken is kind of ubiquitous. This time I had enough for a deep casserole pie that was less soupy than before, but other times I’ve had just enough to fill a regular piecrust or a couple single ramekins. You could even use it to make a few pasties for lunches. What you make is up to you and what you have.
When the pot of soup gets too small and is less soupy, add some barley, let it reduce into a stew and put it in a crust for yet another dinner. If you’re making pasties it’s easier to handle if you let it cool before making the pasties.
2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c (1 stick) cold butter
Enough ice-cold water to make a manageable dough.
Cut the butter into they flour until it’s rough and looks sandy. Add the water a bit at a time til it’s thick and manageable.
Divide into 2 lumps and roll out to line a casserole or pie tin.
Roll out the other half, fill the shell with stew filling and cover with the other slab of dough, crimping the 2 halves together. Cut a hole in the center or a few around the top to let steam out. be as decorative as you want.
Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Serve as dinner main course, as just dinner (it is a balanced meal, after all), as a side dish or as lunch. Having some bread to sop the juices is yummy, especially if it’s home made bread. Serve with or without condiments. Mustard, chutney, piccalilli, ploughman’s pickle, sour cream or whatever suits you. It goes well with milk, cider, soda, beer or a nice glass of wine. This is also perfect for Pi day, especially if you start the day with a breakfast of quiche, continue with other pies and finish with your favourite pie desert.
If you don’t have time to make a crust you can always pull the emergency crust out of the freezer…one should always have an emergency crust in the freezer. I used deep dish frozen crusts for this. They usually come in pairs so you can make 2 quiches or other open-top pies or you can make one double-crust pie.
Let the filling cool then fill the crust. You might have enough filling for a tray of pasties, so you can make those at the same time. The cheese is optional.
Flip the other piecrust onto the filled crust and put some water along the edge of the bottom crust. Your finger should work fine for this.
Crimp with a fork.
Pierce with a fork in an attractive pattern. You can cut nice sits in with a knife, too. Painting it with egg wash will make it a nice, shiny brown, but that’s optional. I didn’t do that this time.
Bake until golden. Yes, fresh home-made bread is wonderful to sop up any juices.
The first piece out is always a disaster as far as looks go, but it’s still yummy.
Yes, it’s a reproduction. I found this in a reference. I need to go look it up again, but for now I’ll just mention that I’m a potter so I got bored and made one. I’ll tweak the dimensions a bit next time I make one so it’ll work better for the kabobs it was made for, but this one works fine this way.
Put it in a spot where it won’t catch your house or garden on fire. An old stone patio works. Get small dry twigs and fill it to heaping. Have a stick ready to poke any sticks that misbehave. Also have a hose ready for any stray flare-ups. The hose is off-screen.
Put a lit match in one end.
Let it burn to the other side.
Come to think of it, it would probably burn down more evenly if you put a match under the sticks at the other end, too. Put the grill on so any old gunk can burn off. OK, I forgot to take a picture of the empty grille on, but this is when you’d do that. Of course you’ve already scrubbed everything off with a brush.
Put on the sirloin fillets.
At this point the chickens might be a little concerned. Don’t hesitate to reassure them that they’re not next. Unless they’ve been evil, but Guinea Hens are more likely to need threats.
They cook fast, so don’t wander off. Be ready to turn them after a couple minutes.
The chickens might want to help. Don’t let them. Never trust a chicken, they’ll eat anything they can catch.
You can turn them again a time or two to get the nice crosshatch grill marks, but don’t overcook them.
Serve with a salad, fresh bread, spinach dip, potato salad and maybe a nice red wine.
If you have filet Mignon, the kind in the single packets with bacon wrapped around them, you can grill those, too. Start them on their sides so the bacon gets cooked. You’ll have to turn them 3 or 4 times. Yes, I didn’t think to take the picture until all but one were done with this step.
Then turn them on one side and cook about 5 minutes or so.
Turn them and keep an eye on them. You don’t want anything to burn.
Again, don’t let the chickens help. They can watch, since they’re easily bored and need a source of amusement, but don’t let them help.
Turn them again just to (at least try to) get nice grill marks on them. No, the chickens still can’t help, even if her name is Elizabeth Swan.
When you take them off, while they’re resting, take a shovel full of dirt (try not to have flammable dry garden stuff in it!) and smother the coals. Then it’ll be safe to go inside and eat.
Serve them with biscuits, a nice tossed salad, broccoli salad, a nice red wine or beer…
This starts out just like any roast, but no dredging! Brown it in a frying pan.
Put it in a roasting pan or oven safe pan with water, beer or wine in the bottom and a cut-up onion.
Pour on your best home-made barbecue sauce or your favourite store-bought sauce. .
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 min per pound or until it’s ready to fall apart. The onions will have pretty much melted into the sauce. When done it’ll be dark, sometimes very dark, depending on the sauce. Don’t worry, it’s not burnt and (BTW) ‘burnt ends’ are the best.
Cool a bit so you can work with it. Take 2 forks and start pulling the meat apart from one end to the other. It’s surprisingly easy and goes pretty fast.
When you finish pulling it apart mix it in with the pan sauce in a sauce pan, rinse the roasting pan with ore wine or beer and add more sauce if you like. Cook it down til it’s the consistency you like it. Some people like it dryer and meatier, some people like it wetter and saucier.
Save leftovers in containers for later use. Serve on a good roll. Cheese of your choice is optional, as is bacon. Have napkins and a spoon or fork ready, it gets messy but is so yummy. French fries, onion rings, tater puffs or various versions of prepared salads are a nice accompaniment. Have a nice glass of wine or beer handy to make the enjoyment compleat.
Brown the roast. This one’s a chuck roast, but you can use a rump, round or sirloin.
Put in the roasting pan, add some wine, beer or water and onion.
A little Worcestershire sauce and a bay leaf (optional). Also, if you want to add garlic, pepper or any other seasonings, now would be the time.
An hour before it’s done peel and cut up some potatoes and carrots, use either a potato peeler
or a paring knife
and scatter them around the roast.
When done, put the vegetables in a bowl (or 2 bowls if you’re picky) and put the roast on a platter to rest for about 10 minutes or so, while you set the table and make the gravy.
Melt about 2 Tablespoons butter, bacon fat or put olive oil or even fat from the roast (if you have enough to spoon off the top of the drippings) in a saucepan or frying pan. Add about 2 Tablespoons of flour.
Stir until toasted or nicely brown. This will both flavour and colour the gravy.
When the desired colour add the drippings from the pan,
simmer until thickened and any water, wine or beer you like to make the appropriate consistency.
Put the gravy in a gravy boat, small pitcher or bowl to serve with the roast and potatoes.
Serve with a salad, biscuits, scones, beer, wine, horseradish or just enjoyed alone for its own flavourful virtues.
The 1st time it was too short, so I re-folded it.
This time it was just right.
Then carefully cut the fabric along the edge so it will have a clean, square edge along the open folded edge. Some patterns lend themselves to more easily gutting straight than others.
Then I folded it diagonally into a triangle
and cut off the extra length while at the same time cutting the raw edge straight and clean.When folded back it’s now a square with a fold at one end.
Carefully cut along the fold so you now have 2 squares.
Pull out your iron and ironing board. Yes, I only use mine when sewing. Iron out any minor wrinkles, then iron a small fold along one edge.
Now fold it over again so the raw edge is inside the 1st fold. Try to keep them as small as possible.
Sew it up at the sewing machine. You can use a straight stitch or zig-zag. I prefer zig-zag. You’ll probably also want to use thread that matches or complements the fabric.
Nip off the stray ends.
Now you have 2 new, custom bandannas!
These are my 4 new bandannas. Use them any way you like, but the traditional way to wear them is to fold them into a triangle and tie them over your hair for a country look or over your mouth and nose for a great train robbery look. Have fun!
Put the soup on to warm. If you have home made broth, great! Or you can make do with canned consume. Tonight I made do with a can each of beef mushroom soup and French onion soup. Instead of just using water to thin, I used a can of wine as well.
Cut the rolls open and toast them while you slice the beef thinly, across the grain.
Arrange on the rolls, with the cheese too.
Melt the cheese. Add mustard or horseradish if you really want to. I don’t feel it’s necessary, but many might.
Cut the sandwiches in 1/2 (they’re more manageable that way.
Serve the broth/consume in individual bowls and dip as you please.
Open the can of tuna, drain and put in a bowl. Or chop the ham, chicken or egg and put it in a bowl.
If you need to, put it in a bigger bowl. Yeah, I’m gonna need a bigger bowl.
Add a couple spoonfuls of mayonnaise, a squirt of mustard and some relish, as well as onion, celery and spices.
Mix well. If it’s not wet enough, add more mayonnaise. If it’s too wet, add cheese. Also, it’ll firm up once it’s been refrigerated.
Serve on crackers, lettuce, in sandwiches (your choice of bread, pick a bread, any bread) or just eat as is. 
Grate the potatoes. Squeeze a lemon over them to keep them from discolouring. If you don’t have enough, use a carrot, turnip, beet or whatever other root vegetable you have handy to fill it out. Toss in part of a chopped onion, too.
Mix up your grated crust stuff with the chopped onion and a whisked egg as a binder.
Press into a greased pie tin or casserole. Bake until dry-ish, about 1/2 an hour or so, at 350 degrees. While that’s baking chop up the rest of the filling stuff.
Chop more onion, halve and slice a zucchini and separate a cauliflower into sections and slice them.
When the crust is out of the oven, put a layer of grated cheese in the bottom.
Arrange a layer of cauliflower on the cheese.
Add a bit more cheese if you like and arrange zucchini on top.
More cheese, if you like, and a layer of onions
Put a layer of chopped Bacon over that. This is, of course, optional.
In a bowl (probably the one you’ve already been using), put seasonings. Thyme, pepper, basil, garlic, celery seed…whatever strikes your fancy.
Add 2 or 3 eggs and some milk and whisk.
If you like, sprinkle more cheese on top before poring egg, seasoning and milk mixture over it all. If the milk/egg mixture doesn’t go quite far enough mix up another egg and some milk to our over and finish it off.
Bake for about half an hour until the egg mixture sets.
Serve as a main course or side dish. Biscuits or freshly baked bread go well with it, as does as a nice glass of wine. A green salad wouldn’t go amiss, either. If you’re a devout carnivore, go ahead and have a steak, chop or some meatloaf as well.
Brielle's Avalon 
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